New York—DHA Capital has officially closed on the acquisition of a much-discussed parking garage site at 75 Kenmare Street in New York City. Along with partners AMS Acquisitions and First Atlantic Real Estate, DHA Capital first entered into contract to purchase the property in 2015. The partners have since selected musician Lenny Kravitz’s eponymous design firm to lead interior design, making this the first new-construction New York City condominium to feature interiors by Kravitz Design.

The planned boutique condominium will be comprised of 38 one- to four-bedroom homes ranging in price from approximately $1.7 million to more than $12 million.

Located in Manhattan’s North of Little Italy (NoLIta) neighborhood, the building will also have approximately 8,000 square feet of retail at its base.

“We loved this location; it’s a great downtown location,” DHA Capital Managing Principal Dan Hollander told MHN. “NoLIta is a trending neighborhood right now, so I can’t think of a downtown location I’d rather have than this one.”

The building will communicate a sense of modern luxury through such features and finishes as the unique natural stones, textured metal and rich oak thoughtfully juxtaposed throughout the building. Architect and AIA Institute Honor Award winner Andre Kikoski is the executive architect and is leading the project’s exterior design.

Hollander noted that his firm looked carefully at both the upsides and downsides of a development deal. “The pluses are that it’s a corner site, [and a] nice big footprint, so we could lay out really good apartments,” he reported. “It also made the retail site valuable, considering a nice corner like that. And there is a park to the north of us, so we have light and air on all sides of the building.”

The biggest challenge was that the seller had been running a parking garage on the site, and as part of the sale “wanted his parking spaces back,” Hollander recalled. “We will do that through an automated system that will require digging a pretty deep hole. He will have that parking returned to him through an automated system.”

This obstacle notwithstanding, DHA Capital was required to surmount a few hurdles.

“Given the state of the market, it was pretty comfortable underwriting,” Hollander said. “We are building smaller units here. That is a strategy we’ve found effective. There’s a higher demand for units at under $4 million, which is a very strong market. That’s the market we are catering to.”

Construction loan and acquisition financing is being provided by Deutsche Bank. Headed by The Eklund Gomes Team at Douglas Elliman, sales are scheduled to begin in fall, 2016. Demolition is slated to start by early to mid-summer 2016, with construction underway soon thereafter. First move-ins are expected by fall of 2018.